The Weight of the World
by secretoftetra
Summary: Oliver Oken stood in the rain with the weight of the world on his shoulders. A story of romantic angst told from different points of view each chapter. OliverxMiley, LilyxJake
1. Oliver

Oliver Oken stood in the rain with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

It was cold. He looked at the cloudy Malibu sky above him. The weather was never as warm these days as it had once been. It didn't bother Oliver at all. He had long since lost his enthusiasm for the beach. That was where _she_ had first kissed _him_.

Oliver shook his head. He tried not to think about it, but everything seemed to remind him of her.

He checked his watch. He had gotten there way too early. Once again, he had rushed. He was always rushing; probably because the only worthwhile place he ever went was to be with her.

He knew they would be late. They were always late, but Oliver didn't have the energy to get mad. He felt completely drained, exhausted, and spent. Sleepless nights had become a routine thing to him, and all of his waking moments were spent thinking of her. It was a hard life to live, and the effects of it all were taking a toll on his body.

He could remember the day Lily had found him in the storage closet. Pale, shaking, and upset, he had just witnessed them kissing in the hallway for the first time. He didn't think he could bear to watch, so he had turned on the spot and ran for the first hiding place he could get to.

"Oliver?"

Silence.

"Oliver, I know you're in there!"

"..Go away.", he mumbled.

She pushed the door open.

"Oliver!" Lily stared open mouthed at the trembling figure before her, slouched on the floor, his head in his hands. She rushed forward and knelt down beside him.

"What's the matter?"

He couldn't answer the question. Tears stung his eyes and his throat burned.

But she knew. They both knew what the matter was, and Oliver knew that to see him so upset, so emotionally attached to another girl, must have broken Lily's heart.

"Oliver...I hate seeing you like this.", she said, her voice trembling. "I really hate it."

He forced himself to look up into her bright blue eyes, and immediately regretted it. He saw the mirrored hurt, sadness, and heart break that he felt everytime he looked at Miley. Everytime he looked at a person he loved so much that didn't love him back.

"Lily, I...", he started, unsure of what he could even say to her.

But she kissed him, and when Oliver felt the longing in her lips he knew what he had to do.

He pulled away, and awkwardly started to tell her that he didn't feel the same way, but she stopped him.

"I know! I know...", she said quietly, wiping her lips and looking at the floor. "I just don't want you to feel like no one loves you. Because...Because some people do."

Oliver could never quite forget that day. The memory of it creeped up on him at unexpected times. Late at night, when he was all alone trying and failing to fall asleep, during the day in school, when he saw her smile just barely conceal the sadness and despair within, and sometimes...sometimes even when he thought about Miley. He felt guilty, knowing that the same pain she inflicted on him, he inflicted on Lily. He was ashamed that he felt the way he did, and why couldn't he be happy with someone that wasn't already in love with someone else? Why couldn't he love someone who was more than available? Someone that knew him better than most, and would treat him better as well.

But he couldn't. He just couldn't. Because as much as he felt guilty about Lily's feelings for him, he felt even more a deep, burning passion inside of him for Miley; something that seemed to grow stronger everyday, even as their friendship crumbled apart.

After all, once Jake Ryan had entered the picture, Miley didn't seem to want to spend much time with anyone else. This was another thing that brought Oliver back to the guilt he had about Lily. Because he knew that as much as he was hurt by the situation, Lily must have been suffering in silence far worse. She not only loved someone who didn't love her back, she had now seemingly lost her best friend as well. The best friend who unintentionally stole the heart of the one boy Lily had given hers away to; only to be smashed to pieces that day on the storage closet floor.

After that day, Lily seemed to be trying to move on. She had given up on Oliver and told him one fateful day about her new feelings for Jake Ryan. Oliver tried to give her advice but just couldn't. After all, they were in the same boat. A sinking ship sailing along the stormy waters of the Jake and Miley current. It was dangerous and challenging, but neither one of them could seem to give up.

Oliver didn't care much for Jake Ryan, so loving Miley never really bothered him on the friendship front with him; but Miley was Lily's best friend. So secretly loving her best friend's boyfriend had to make Lily feel some sort of guilt.

But Oliver had to give her credit. Because as much as Lily had talked about how much she liked Jake when he had first chosen her, she said nothing of those feelings when Miley had actually started going out with him.

Oliver thought it was a real classy move. He knew that Lily must have cared too much for Miley to let Jake get in the way, and he really admired her for trying to hang onto their strong friendship. As for Oliver's friendships, he didn't really know the state of things. He was never really able to open up to Lily about his feelings for Miley, possibly because he didn't even think he could explain it in words, and his friendship with Miley was just.. complicated. There really were no other words for it.

Oliver looked over at the parking lot and spotted three heads emerging from a car. They had arrived.


	2. Lily

Lily Truscott couldn't breathe.

She had sat down next to him in the movies, breathing in his cologne, a mixture of pine trees and something that smelled like grapefruit. Whatever the scent, it drew her in like an intoxicating cloud, and she couldn't help but feel slightly light headed and dizzy.

Miley was on his left of course, with the completely obsessed Oliver next to her. Jake and Miley probably didn't understand why they had both chosen to sit on opposite ends of the couple, but it wasn't because they didn't want to sit next to each other. Oliver wanted to be close to Miley, and Lily wanted to be close to Jake.

Because being close to Jake was like no other feeling in the world. And Lily remembered all too well the closeness she had shared with him for a short time in the past, before Miley had been swept into the picture, stealing Jake away from her. The injustice of it all brought tears to Lily's eyes.

But what could she do? He was with Miley now, and nothing Lily could ever do would change that.

Lily remembered the day he was stolen away from her. The day to end all days. The day she realized her self worth, or lack of it.

He had tried to let her down gently. Tried to tell Lily that it just wasn't working between them, and they would both be better off parting ways. But she could see it in his eyes. It was Miley. It was Miley and only Miley. Lily wasn't even a part of the real story. Because after all, this was Miley's story, and Lily was just part of the supporting cast. So wasn't it perfect that Miley ended up getting the guy in the end? That Miley had her happy ending?

No. It wasn't. Because Miley's happy ending was Lily's unhappy beginning. And it was all she could do somedays not to scream out at her best friend in frustration. It was all she could do to keep smiling, pretending that everything was alright, when it so clearly wasn't.

No one knew of her secret. No one but Oliver. Oliver, the only person she knew could fully understand where she was coming from. After all, her battle with Jake was much like his battle with Miley. Obsessive and damn frustrating.

She had told him one day after many days and nights of considering whether or not to, and he hadn't really been able to offer Lily any advice.

"I-I'm sorry.", was all he said after she told him.

"Sorry?", Lily asked, not understanding.

He paused and looked at her out of the corner of his eyes.

"Yeah, sorry. I know how hard it can be, this whole situation. And I'm sorry that you have to go through it too Lily, I really am."

Lily had sat there in silence for a few moments, unsure of how to respond.

"But...but don't you think love is something to be glad about?", Lily had said after awhile.

Oliver smiled at her, and leaned forward.

"Only love that's returned.", he said, smiling sadly at her.

Those words had made a big impact on Lily, and she hadn't been able to forget them since. They echoed in her brain at unexpected times, taunting her, torturing her. She heard them everytime she looked at Jake, everytime she pretended to be happy when Miley told her about something romantic Jake had done for her. It was painful, and she couldn't help but feel slightly annoyed with Oliver for putting the idea in her head.

But she knew he was right. She just hated the fact.


	3. Miley

Miley Stewart felt suffocated.

Sitting next to Jake in the movie theater, all she wanted to do was go home, turn her phone off, and hide under the covers until this relationship nightmare was over. The truth was, she couldn't stand Jake anymore. Jake Ryan, television god, had turned out to be as shallow and hollow as could possibly be, and Miley had just had enough.

She turned to look at Oliver next to her. He was slumped in his seat, his sunken brown eyes telling the whole story. Miley felt a twinge of guilt. She couldn't pretend not to notice the feelings Oliver had for her anymore. She knew his depressed state was all because of Jake. Jake and Miley, the happiest most horrible couple in the entire universe. Honestly, half the time she felt like shouting at Oliver how she really felt. How much she hated Jake, how much she felt trapped, and desperately wished sometimes it was just her and Oliver hanging out. Not Jake, Miley, and a depressed Oliver and Jake smitten Lily.

She sighed.

How had things between all of them gotten so bad? Well inside, she knew.

It was all Jake's fault.

He had broken Lily's heart. Then he had taken Miley's, which in turn broke Oliver's. Then he had finally shown his true self and acted like a complete idiot, losing his girlfriend's affection, and ending up here. In the movies, the couple from hell between the lovers from hell. She honestly had to convince herself any of it was real, life really seemed to be resembling a soap opera these days.

Miley looked over at Lily. She sat in her seat, upright and staring straight ahead at the movie screen, obviously trying hard not to notice the close proximity of Jake next to her. Miley sighed again. She wished Lily knew that if she wanted Jake, she could have him. Besides, Miley's whole relationship with Jake was built on a foundation of guilt anyway. Technically, she had stolen him from Lily in the first place, and Miley sometimes felt like she would never be able to live with that.

She saw how fake Lily acted everytime Miley told her something about her relationship. She saw how hard Lily tried not to cry or show any emotion at all when Miley talked about Jake at length. But those days were long gone. Miley never talked that way about Jake anymore, and even if she did, it wouldn't have been to Lily.

After all, none of them really communicated to each other these days. It seemed as if Jake was the only one who ever said anything. Whether pointing himself out in a passing commercial, or talking about a new movie deal he was working on, it was always Jake's voice. Miley couldn't recall the last real conversation she had had with Lily, and she couldn't even _remember _the last time her and Oliver had really talked about anything. Everything had suffered in the wake of Miley and Jake.

Next to her, Jake told some sort of joke about the movie. No one laughed.

Miley couldn't help but notice every annoying quality in Jake these days. It was a matter of time until they broke up, presumably Miley getting fed up and dumping him. Sure there was the whole Hannah risk, but frankly, Miley didn't care anymore. It just wasn't worth it. She didn't think she could stand another day of seeing Oliver walk around like a zombie, eyes blank and body rigid, like being awake in a comatose.

No, it was too painful. And she cared about Oliver dearly. More than a friend should. After all, why shouldn't she? Oliver clearly was in love with her, a fact her squirming stomach had come to terms with in recent days.

But she couldn't do anything about it. She was stuck in this living nightmare called, "Dating Jake Ryan", and honestly, she just wanted to wake up.

Maybe tonight would be the night. Maybe tonight she would finally break it off with him. It was now or never. And Miley didn't think she could listen to the sound of his voice for a minute longer.


	4. Jake

Jake Ryan was already regretting his decision.

Fresh into a new relationship with Miley, he longed to have his old one back. Because Lily hadn't pretended to laugh at his jokes or not get annoyed when he bragged about himself. Lily had been real to him. Something that these days, Miley obviously was not being.

He could see it in her eyes. Her bright blue sparkling eyes that for so long had drawn him in, and now just sent him away into a cloud of self doubt and an analytical relationship. Because they no longer sparkled for him. He wasn't blind. He could see that something had changed in Miley.

She never kissed him anymore.

When they had first started going out, they couldn't stop kissing. Jake thought he would never tire of Miley's lips. But as it turned out, it was when they _weren't_ kissing was the problem. They had nothing to talk about. And as time passed on and their relationship suffered more and more, Miley stopped kissing him altogether. Except for a goodnight or hello kiss, that was all Jake ever got.

It wasn't the physical part of the relationship (or lack thereof) that had thrown Jake for a number either. It was the lack of connection. He and Miley had basically one thing in common. They were both superstars. But outside of that? Zip. And the relationship just didn't work. He knew how annoyed Miley got everytime he threw one of his "diva like fits" (in Miley's words of course) and stole a measley water bottle from a stupid little girl.

But he couldn't help it. He didn't have a normal half of his life. He was Jake Ryan, television god all the time. And who could complain about being that?

That was another thing. Being with Miley had made him second guess all of his fame and success. He had started wondering if it wasn't all it was cracked up to be; something he had never thought about before.

Jake didn't like all these new negative feelings Miley put in him, and he longed to be with someone simpler. Someone he didn't have to work at, argue with just to try and find a deeper connection.

And that someone was sitting right next to him. Not on his left, Miley, but on his right, Lily.

He knew he had treated Lily like dirt from the beginning. Using her, just to get to Miley, his eyes on the prize the whole time, not realizing until it was too late that he had stolen her heart and thrown it in the trash. But Lily was a strong cookie, he had to admit, as corny as that sounded.

She never made a move on him. Never spoke of her jealousy or anger towards him, which he knew most definitely had to be locked down under those teeming green eyes.

Oh how Jake longed to go back in time, change the past and be sitting with Lily, and only Lily right now. It was all he could do not to turn to his right and apologize to her, cry out for her forgiveness and tell her how he had done wrong. He doubted it would matter all that much to Miley anyway. Besides, he saw how she looked at Oliver, and he knew. He knew how her heart secretly longed for the boy that had once idolized her. How she wished so badly that Oliver had loved her as Miley, not just Hannah. After all, it was Oliver Oken's name she had moaned in her sleep that fateful night they had spent under the stars, not Jake Ryan's.

Thinking of that night, he sighed. My how things had changed since then. It had been his first inkling of the problems they would face ahead, and he almost wished he would have made a big deal out of it, just to avoid everything they were dealing with now.

But alas, there he was, sitting between the girl who no longer loved him, and the girl he longed to love.


End file.
